Like Leaves In The Wind
by Zatroopa
Summary: The arrival of Team TakaKage could have gone many different ways. From how they interacted, how they fought against Madara and even how the aftermath turned out such as Karin getting married, Naruto going back to school, the word Emochiha and more. Read on to see how these fates may have occurred, with all the hilarity that follows.
1. New Era, Old Tricks

Alright guys, I've been reading the latest Naruto manga chapters and I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed about how it all turned out, the way Team Hawk got back together and the way that Team Takakage arrived on the battlefield. Now authors better than I have done their own versions and I'm sure they have gotten the attention they deserve.

However, that doesn't rule out my own ideas on what could have happened instead. Ideas that have rushed across my mind for some time now and idea that you will enjoy, hopefully.

I don't own Naruto, or anything currently on the visual media.

* * *

**Scenario One: New Era, Old Tricks**

Sasuke breathed in the air and then breathed out. The time was ripe for him, and his group of dead Hokages and the team that he...left behind, to take to the battlefield and save the world from Madara's plan to brainwash the world using the Jyuubi and the Moon.

Wow, that sounded really strange in his head.

Either way, Sasuke wasn't going to let the Will of Hatred that had controlled the lives of so many of his family members take him. He was going to fight for the village that Itachi gave his life for and ensure that a new era of peace and love would engulf the world, a new dawn where children didn't have to watch their families get slaughtered or be forced to kill them, a world where his-

"YOU!"

A loud screech could be heard and the sound of water breaking apart and trying to reform itself to little avail reached Sasuke's ears, he turned to see a familiar girl with red hair and an angry expression on her face. She appeared to have recognised the chakra of the group, or rather Suigetsu's, and had reacted accordingly with violent rage.

Karin soon turned towards Sasuke, rage and betrayal apparent in her eyes. It seemed that she was still angry about the whole "you got taken hostage, so I'm going to stab you in the chest and kill you while also going a bit cray-cray" deal, it was understandable. Sasuke probably would have reacted the same way in Karin's place.

Only he would have used the Sharingan to set his enemies on fire, rather than just stomp on them repeatedly.

"I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Karin had boldly declared, making everyone wonder what exactly Sasuke did that made this person so angry at him. Whatever it was, it seemed that he had done something that was unrelentingly cruel, something that Sasuke was now going to have to confront and deal with, the collateral damage of his rage going out of control.

How could Sasuke put his regret into words? To show that he had not only changed from the child lost in the darkness to someone who had seen the light and was going to make things right, how could he even begin to show his regret for what he did to the people who cared about him?

"Sorry 'bout the whole stabbing you thing. We cool?"

Apparently, he could do this by sounding like a mixture of someone who accidentally bumped into someone on a train and someone who realised that they did something worse than they thought. All in all, it wasn't exactly going to win any film awards for best acting and only someone who was completely desperate would buy into that.

That someone was Karin. In her defence, she had just broken out of jail and didn't exactly have many other places to go and Orochimaru pointed out that he wasn't causing a fuss over him being stabbed, absorbed into Sasuke's mind, stabbed by a magical sword, merged with Kabuto and forced to get images of Anko's memories into his mind.

He was going to have to get a lot of therapy for that last one. Then again, Karin wasn't a nigh-immortal snake creature who could steal people's bodies. She was an orphan who lost her family due to a very large war which led to her life going more than a bit south from there.

Either way, Team TakaKage was complete and were ready to save the day as the heroes of this tale, although there was one slightly difference, one Karin Uzumaki had decided to speak with the legendary First Hokage on some matters, such as if he ever met with her ancestors during the days before the Village system was formed.

The Fucking Depressing Times weren't often looked at in schools, due to them involving children dying and shit often hitting the fan, so it seemed like a chance to learn some new things for Karin and a chance for Hashirama to learn more about the younger generation.

Such conversations before the battle would spark a great change in the history of the Ninja World.

* * *

One month had passed since the defeat of Madara, Obito and the Jyuubi, otherwise known as The Creature That Made An Army Shit Itself, and Naruto and Sasuke were finally discharged from the hospital. They, and many others, had suffered grievous wounds that the medics could only prevent from becoming fatal or crippling, the hospitals did the best they could and managed to save them from a comatose state.

Naruto had been visited by many people from all over, the veterans from the war had wanted to thank their saviour for all that he did and never giving up, despite the sacrifices he made. The child who was once looked upon as a monster had now become the hero of all, becoming acknowledged by all to have done his part in saving the world from certain doom.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had an argument with the Raikage on who would have won at the Kage Summit had Gaara not intervened, a tense talk with the Rookie Nine which ended with mutual insults between many on both sides and having to deal with Suigetsu poking his cast. Orochimaru had fled to Otokage, rebuilding his former power-base, but no longer the cruel monster that he was, instead working to ensure that all those who lost what they had would still have a home.

Tsunade had been less than eager to let Sasuke back in the village, though the words of her predecessors and strong hospital drugs had gotten through to her and she gave amnesty to Sasuke. The two councillors left may have complained if not for the Second Hokage being the one to also advise forgiveness, they had stayed silent due to the respect for their former teacher and not wanting to open an argument about the merits of genocide.

Now, life seemed to be returning to normal. The Zetsus were used in Edo Tensei to bring the fallen back to life, the former Hokages decided to stay in the land of the living to aid in the beginning of a new era and Naruto was sure that life was going to be awesome now.

Until he heard that the First Hokage was marrying again. With a younger girl. A much younger girl.

Naruto's distant cousin, Karin, to be exact.

Needless to say, he wasn't exactly thrilled to be hearing this. From what Hashirama and Karin said, they had felt a connection during the battle with Madara and the month interlude had opened up a courtship that led to love. Now, Naruto wasn't opposed to old people dating again (he and Sakura had been trying to get Tsunade back into the game for some time now), but he felt that it would be more than a little awkward to have his distant cousin become his great-great grandmother.

Pointing this out led to him being struck on the head by Karin, alongside Suigetsu who seemed discomforted by "old people sex" but his point still stood. Sasuke seemed fine with it, until he was informed that planning the wedding would not count to his Community Service Hours, and had even offered to be the one to give Karin away due to some bond they had which survived him stabbing her.

The foreign Kages wouldn't be able to make the wedding, they were too busy with making sure that their villages were kept safe from bandit attacks after ascertaining that Naruto would live, Kamui apologising deeply for attacking him earlier and Killer Bee having one last friendship rap before. Their absence would be replaced by the Undead Kages.

Minato seemed supportive of the marriage, recalling the slight disaster that was his own wedding as Kakashi refused to let his eyes off them due to a fear that they would die like Rin and Obito. It took Jiraiya using his more 'dirty' books to distract Kakashi from monitoring Minato and Kushina during their wedding.

Tobirama had been made the Best Man, Sarutobi would be legitimising the ceremony and Juugo had been kind enough to convince the animals to aid in giving Hashirama and Karin having a fairy tale-like wedding. Ino, Hinata, Tsunade and Sakura were the bridesmaids and it seemed that everyone would be attending the ceremony in honour of their founder finding love again.

Hashirama, upon seeing a lack of objections and finding that everything had been planned for, then declared that he and Karin were heading back to the Uchiha District, where Team TakaKage were being housed, for tea.

"But there's a tea shop over there." Tsunade pointed out, pointing to one of the many tea shops that could be seen from afar.

"Yeah, what's so important about tea at the Uchiha District?" Naruto interrogated, with many in Team TakaKage wondering why those two didn't see what Hashirama and Karin were planning. Tsunade, they could understand with the whole "my new Grandmother is old enough to be my grandchild" thing, but not Naruto.

"We can have bountiful sex at home!" Hashirama proudly declared, followed by a double punch from Tobirama and Karin, the latter fulfilling his duty as the future Best Man and protecting the dignity of the groom by any means necessary.

Naruto simply sighed in happiness. It seemed that the universe was giving him the gift of a happy ending, the crushing loneliness he once had and the lack of an actual family was now replaced with a giant crowd of friends and a family that would soon grow, although he was sticking to dating for now.

Despite that, he remained naturally worried. Naruto, and Sasuke agreed, that having small children with the powers of the First Hokage and temperament of Karin might have some wacky results. The babies with the power to manipulate Wood Style was going to keep things interesting for quite some time, even with the violence in the world dy-.

Wait a minute. Babies with the power to manipulate Wood Style? Where had he heard that one before?

Oh fuck, they forgot about Captain Yamato.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it, remember to RxR.


	2. Tough Luck, Naruto

Chapter number two and another event that may have happened, had fate decided to go the other way, only on the matter of how the end of the battle may have turned out, if Naruto had used too much of his Kyuubi powers.

Naruto isn't mine, just putting up the standard Disclaimer.

* * *

**Scenario Two: Tough Luck, Naruto**

His eyes struggled to open, he had used too much chakra while protecting his friends and allies from getting butchered by the Jyuubi and the last thing that he was able to see had been the human wall of his fellow ninja. Refusing to let their inspiration fall, they were looking Madara in the eye and declaring that they weren't going to just lie down and take it.

Madara didn't like that and had ordered the Jyuubi to attack. Naruto used his last bursts of chakra to give them all some type of defence and felt a powerful surge from their end, he then closed his eyes and hoped that their will and hope could overcome the despair and hatred that Madara espoused.

Even in an unconscious state, Naruto could sense powerful presences and could feel that these were fighting against the unnatural combined energies of the Nine Tailed Beasts, or rather seven and parts of Gyuki and Kurama. He could sense that the dark chakra that Madara had around him was fading and that it disappeared entirely after a final clash.

"Naruto?" A voice could be heard, Naruto recognised it to be Sakura's. It seemed that he was back in Konoha, lying in a hospital bed after the battle.

"What happened?" He had some idea of what had actually occurred during the battle but not much after he had went unconscious, all he knew was that something had fought Madara.

Kakashi, who Naruto had not noticed until then, thought otherwise. "You used too much chakra trying to protect everyone." His voice changed from a mixture of approval and worry to a more joking one. "A kind gesture, but awfully high standards for us to live up to in a war."

"Where's Madara, the Jyuubi an-and that Obito guy?" Naruto recalled him taking Kakashi to some other dimension, meaning that Kakashi had won, but who were the people that fought Madara with the Ninja Alliance?

"Oh we dealt with them." Naruto didn't recognise this person. He seemed to be from Kiri, judging by the shape of his teeth and the colour of his hair, but he had no headband to show it, only a drink in his hand that he was using a straw for.

"Who's this guy?"

"Suigetsu Hozuki, the brother of one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist." Kakashi explained, why Suigetsu positioned himself near Sakura in a way that made Naruto uneasy, especially with Sakura seeming to encourage it with her body language. "He was with Sasuke when he saved us all."

"Sasuke?" He abandoned his rage? Naruto always had faith in Sasuke, where everyone else just saw him as that crazy guy who wanted to murder everyone, but he thought he would need to use a Speech of Friendship on him, not just have him change himself.

As if he was waiting for a cue (he totally wasn't and anyone who said otherwise was a dirty liar), a familiar Uchiha entered the room "Hey, I see that you're awake."

Naruto would have been elated to see that his old comrade had returned, that the promise made three years ago to a crying Sakura had now been fulfilled and that things were going to get better. He would have been happy had Sasuke not been hearing a certain hat that Naruto had been aiming for some time now.

"Why is he wearing the Hokage Hat of Hokage-ness?" Everyone in the room suddenly changed their expressions, as if they remembered some very important plot-point in a film that they just spoiled in front of someone who didn't see it.

"Oh, you were out during all of that." Sasuke seemed to still need some work on having emotions outside of the standard Emo setting. "While we were protecting you, your father-"

Naruto was more than a little shocked by the news that his father had returned to life again, maybe his mother had come back as well and he'd have a family. "DAD'S ALIVE?"

"No, the Edo Tensei had been cancelled by then." Kakashi seemed to wince as Naruto looked like a kicked puppy. "Oh, don't worry. It was just a few Zetsu that Orochimaru sacrificed to bring back the previous four Hokages after freeing them from the Shinigami's stomach."

Why was Orochimaru, the guy who decided that the most suitable course of action for getting rejected from the executive was to go into human testing, being talked about like an ally?

"You may want to start from the beginning." The sooner he figured out what was happening, the better for Naruto.

"I can do that."Suigetsu claimed, from the uncomfortably close distance to Sakura. "So Sasuke and Itachi had just killed the fuck out of Kabuchimaru when Juugo and I smashed in like a couple of bosses-" Naruto chose to block him out until somewhere important was reached. "-so we then got to the Shrine thing and used the Uzumaki mask to summon a godamn Shinigami! So Orochimaru then summoned the Hokages back from the dead, the Firstkage stopped the Brokage from trying to pick a fight 'cause he knew that we'd just destroy them, Firstkage told Sasuke about him and Madara's bromance which led to Sasuke deciding not to commit genocide."

"Such an amazing revelation." To be fair, Sasuke looked as embarrassed as he possibly could about that.

"All the Kages, after Karin decided to show up to perv on Sasuke some more, then took us to the present Kages who had gotten fucked up by Madara but got better due to Boobkage using some forbidden medical shit. Firstkage and Brokage were crying over Boobkage dying, Oldkage was talking 'bout failing his student, Orochimaru seemed sad...or at least the closest thing to it, and Sasuke promised to 'heal the divide' and all that crap."

"She's dead." It wasn't a question, Naruto had sensed her chakra disappearing but it was still unreal that the old lady would ever really die, she seemed so strong against whatever threat came her way.

Suigetsu, having not known her, was less torn up about it. "Yeah, total bummer." Naruto had the feeling that he only cared because everyone else seemed to. "So all the Kages were pissed, so Blondekage teleported us to the battlefield where, and this is totally an accurate description, SHIT GOT REAL!"

"Thank you for shouting, I was hoping to become deaf in one ear." Sakura pleasantly said, Suigetsu realising that she probably wasn't happy about it, had quickly said sorry.

"Oldkage and Orochimaru were doing some awesome teacher-student thing, Firstkage summoned the fucking Buddha to beat the shit out of the Jyuubi, Brokage helped by working with me and Karin, but mostly me, to locate the other Tailed Beasts and try to have them disrupt the chakra flow using Juugo's nature calling shit and the other Kages were fighting Madara alone with Sasuke and those other ninja." Suigetsu seemed to be over-emphasising his role (especially when he was trying to run away half the time). "You should have seen it when Sasuke's Susanoo merged with the Buddha thing, it was fucking epic."

Yeah it sounded like it was awesome, and Naruto just had to fall unconscious before he could meet up with his father again, avenge Tsunade, meet up the Third once more to say thanks for all the help and to see the victory of hope over despair.

"Alright, so I missed the greatest battle in history, was unable to catch up with my dad or the old man, the old lady is dead and Sasuke is now Hokage." Not even Suigetsu's story had managed to tell the "Sasuke was made Hokage" part. "How did that happen?"

Sakura, being the kind person she was, had stepped in.

"I can explain that."

Suigetsu agreed with that idea. "Yeah, listen to her. She's a really good story-teller, among other talents." He then went to wrap an arm around Sakura and began to whisper certain suggestions that would make this story very unsuitable for children.

"Sui-Sui, stop." Naruto was pretty sure that, had it been anyone else, Sakura would have beaten the ever-loving crap out of them because she didn't stand for being objectified, but she seemed pretty weak in her slap on Suigetsu's chest.

He turned to Kakashi, silently wondering if she hit her head or something like that. "What happened wit-"

"After the Jyuubi was defeated alongside Madara and Kakashi-sensei was able to defeat Obito, Sasuke told us that he wanted to become Hokage. Some of us were more than a bit angry due to him being completely fucking bonkers the last time we saw time. However, the Hokages defended him, pointing out that suspicion of former enemies when they extended a hand led to this all breaking out and Sasuke gave the greatest speech that I ever heard." Sakura had condensed it all down to the briefest possible manner.

"It'd be impossible to replicate it." Kakashi had nodded along, sagely agreeing with the skill of Sasuke's persuasion during that time, bringing tears to the eyes of many ninja. "It showed us all that he had changed for the better and that he was ready to be let back into the light."

"What about those councillors?" Naruto was pretty sure that those two old people weren't exactly going to be forgiving of the last (for real this time) Uchiha, and neither was Sasuke going to forgive them for the whole "ordering the annihilation of everyone that I loved" thing.

"They died of old age." Sasuke said, a bit too quickly for Naruto's liking, while everyone else just seemed to be ignoring that speed in which he said it.

You know what? Naruto was going to move on, he was going to keep all those who had fallen in the battle in his heart and move forward, if Sasuke wanted to be Hokage, he was going to have a fight on his hands as Naruto had little intention of just giving away his dream that quickly.

Besides, there was a bright side to all of this, Sasuke's time as Hokage may be short if Naruto had anything to say about it, but that didn't mean he couldn't finally escape the rank of Genin. "Maybe I can finally get that Chunin promotion." He suggested, the standard chuckle coming out.

However, this was not to be Naruto's day, if Sasuke's awkward expression was anything to go by.

"Yeah..."

"What?" Naruto's eyes narrowed as he had the feeling that this day was about to get a whole lot worse.

"You can't become a Chunin when you aren't even a Genin." Sakura gently explained, trying to make sure that Naruto didn't destroy the hospital room, and possibly Konoha with it, once he found out the slight issue that they discovered.

Naruto finally realised that his headband was not by his bedside, or anywhere in the room to be specific, he turned to the others. "Where's my headband?"

"In storage, after you complete the graduation test." Suigetsu casually said, receiving the glares of everyone else in the room.

"But I did." He remembered getting the scroll, having to deal with Mizuki trying to take the scroll for himself and killing both him and Iruka, and then he was given his own headband. "Iruka-sensei gave me a pass."

"Unofficially," Kakashi pointed out, Naruto knew that Iruka's choice wasn't exactly involved in much paperwork but he thought that the photo was enough. "The councillors died pointing this out, Sasuke is trying to get it reversed but it'll take a month or you'll need to do the test again."

He hoped that the councillors weren't expecting clear skies in their graves because Naruto was going to make sure that they all got pissed on by the end of the day, those two were going to enter the afterlife covered in urine.

"This is BULLSHIT!" Naruto roared out, the others agreeing with him about the cruelty of the village bureaucracy, he wasn't spending another goddamn year in the Academy just because he didn't fulfil the need for some quota.

"Try and do a regular clone justu, not a shadow one." Sasuke noted, if he and the others could show that Naruto could perform the regular clone jutsu, then they might be able to stop him from going back to the Academy and then Naruto could become a Jounin, his rightful position.

Naruto, having enough chakra to do the Shadow Clone Jutsu a hundred times over, recalled the handsigns needed for just regular clones and activated the jutsu. The resulting clone was not another Naruto who was ready to enter the fight once more but more a dying version of Naruto who looked like they had organ failure.

"That is the worst clone I have ever seen." Suigetsu simply said, turning to Naruto with some ancient advice that might be able to help him. "You really need to work on that more, instead of focusing on Shadow Clones."

Naruto wanted to hit that guy, so fucking much.

* * *

"So, Daisuke, what type of missions are often assigned to Genin?" Iruka asked, politely ignoring the blatantly angry presence in Naruto's old seat, now once more occupied by him, as the correct answer was given. It was only Naruto's second day and he could already sense that Naruto wasn't exactly happy about the circumstances that led to him to meet Iruka again.

"This is some bullshit right here." He muttered to the girl sitting next to him, causing her to gasp at the village hero's words and a stick of chalk to fly towards Naruto. The effect was diminished by Naruto grabbing the chalk and focusing his chakra on it, causing it to explode.

Iruka quickly found another piece of chalk and only reminded Naruto of the school rules, hoping that he wouldn't lose the last piece that he was holding. "No swearing in class!"

There were time when Naruto thought about leaving for Suna or Kumo, places that wouldn't force Naruto to stay in the Academy because of a fucking technicality. A place where the person behind him wasn't able to throw bits of paper at his back and act offended when called out on it, another ball hit the back of his head.

"Stop it, Jinta." He simply told the kid, resisting the urge to use a Giant Rasengan to obliterate all traces of the little shit before anyone would be able to tell what had happened.

"Alright class, time for combat practice." There was his chance now, he hadn't been much good at combat during his actual Academy days, a lack of chakra control, but now he was the strongest ninja in the village. "Pick a partner and try to defeat them with all your might, the Hokage is watching today."

Jinta seemed to realise what would happen now and tried to run but Naruto was far too quick for him and had placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Iruka was probably trying to pep the other kids but that didn't mean Naruto had to avoid going full out, he gave Jinta a smile that would make Orochimaru feel uncomfortable.

"Where are you going, _partner_?"

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
